Not enough splendor for the
inspectors

http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | "... a drunk military man should order gallons [of
wine] and put out more flags in order to increase his
military splendor."

— Ancient Chinese Sage

Hans Blix and Mohamed
ElBaradei are not exactly military
men, but they enjoy the trappings
of borrowed splendor, and
yesterday they vowed to make
themselves even more splendid if
only the United States and other
solvent nations will pay for the
flags.

Mr. Blix, in the long-awaited
report of the "inspections" of
Saddam Hussein's suspected
bioterror sites, conceded that
about all he and his men discovered in Iraq was that Saddam
"appears not to have come to a genuine acceptance" of its
disarmament obligations.

Mohamed even had a few encouraging words for
Saddam. "We have to date found no evidence that Iraq has
revived its nuclear weapons program since the elimination of
the program in the 1990s," he said. Messrs. Blix and
ElBaradei complimented the Iraqis for providing something
called "passive cooperation," meaning that Saddam didn't
shoot anybody. We must be grateful for small favors.

None of this can surprise anyone. This was thoroughly
predictable, which is why nobody in Washington imagined
that the inspectors would have found anything in Iraq, even if
they actually went looking very hard for anything other than
extending the duration of a meal ticket. Mr. Blix has
complained for weeks that he doesn't have enough cars,
trucks, helicopters and doodads for the inspectors' uniforms.
(Room service is slow, too.) When George W. Bush told the
U.N. late last year to find some spine or become irrelevant,
he was only making nice. The diplomats at the U.N. are
already irrelevant, competent only at exploiting the sweet life
in Manhattan and finding excuses to stay here. They
understand Thomas Wolfe's famous caution that "you can't go
home again."

Relevant or not, Saddam Hussein and the world will get
America's answer to his continuing stalling, evading and
obfuscating tonight, when the president reports to a joint
session of Congress on the state of the union. If Saddam and
the world want a preview of the president's remarks — and
his ire — he could refer to the warning by Secretary of State
Colin Powell at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

"We will not shrink from war if that is the only way to rid
Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction," he said. "We
continue to reserve our sovereign right to take military action
against Iraq alone or in a coalition of the willing."

The hour is approaching when the United States and this
"coalition of the willing" must, after an autumn and early
winter of ever-more emphatic warnings, take the solemn next
step toward redeeming the president's solemn word.

"History will judge," Mr. Powell said, "whether we have
the strength, the fortitude and the willingness to take that next
step."

Saddam is clever, but he has an audience at the United
Nations with an appetite for buncombe. The 15 U.N.
resolutions in which Iraq stands in defiance demand that he,
not the U.N., answer questions about his programs to
develop weapons of mass destruction. (He, not the grand
coalition, lost the Gulf war.) Rather than answer the
questions, he has challenged the inspectors to catch him if
they can. If they can't, under his rules, he's home free.

"How much time does Iraq need to answer these
questions?" asks Colin Powell, who was Europe's favorite
Washington dove barely a fortnight ago. "It is not a matter of
time, it is a matter of telling the truth, and Saddam Hussein
still responds with evasions and lies."

Mr. Powell drew the connection between Saddam and al
Qaeda and September 11 in the starkest terms yet, and with
it the implication that if civilizations are not at war, the West is
at least at war with that large uncivilized part of the Islamic
world that vows violent death to the infidels. (That's the rest
of us.) Since it's only a matter of time until the uncivilized
fanatics acquire Saddam's instruments of violent death, only
fools — or reckless French- and German-speaking
opportunists — would give Saddam and his ilk more time to
organize a second and far more deadly assault on civilization.

No one should doubt that George W. intends to pull the
trigger, even if our French and German "allies" continue to
cower under their featherbeds and our Russian and Chinese
"friends" try to sneak a resupply of arms to Baghdad. The
president understands better than anyone the consequences
of challenging Saddam to read his lips. To back down in the
face of pressure from the pygmies of Europe would put
"Bush" in the thesaurus as a synonym for "bloviator" and
"toothless windbag" for centuries to come.

But he must strike soon. The hour is late for making
threats and promises. George W. drew the line in the sand.
Saddam crossed it. The commander in chief has put out
enough flags.